Psychosocial Studies (MPhil / PhD)

Year of entry

Start date

Status

Duration

Up to four years full-time or seven years part-time

Attendance

Regular meetings with your supervisor(s)

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

Psychosocial Studies is a leading department in this interdisciplinary field that brings together social, cultural and psychosocial researchers. The Department has developed a distinctive approach to research and teaching that draws on a range of critical frameworks including psychoanalytic theory, social theory, feminist and queer theory, cultural and postcolonial studies, and qualitative psychosocial methodologies. In our research we aim to connect discussions of our precarious and increasingly interconnected collective fates with our most intimate personal and psychic life.

This research degree offers an exciting research environment in which to pursue psychosocial research, as well as supervisory expertise across a number of disciplines, including psychoanalytic theory, social theory, philosophy, social anthropology, literature, postcolonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, and media and cultural studies.

Our programme aims to provide an excellent forum for students to carry out theoretical or applied research in the broad area of psychosocial studies, focusing particularly on innovative interdisciplinary work.

Highlights

The Department of Psychosocial Studies has an active and vibrant research culture. This includes regular workshops, many visiting speakers, and numerous collaborative projects both within London, and at national and international levels.

The MPhil/PhD programme provides an excellent forum for you to develop and enhance your specialist, as well as more general transferable, research skills. The programme allows you to gain insight into different research methods and acquire valuable experience both in carrying out large-scale research projects and teaching.

Entry requirements

A good Master’s degree in a relevant subject in the humanities or social sciences, although we will consider an application from someone who has a first- or good second-class honours degree in one of these subjects.

You will also need to submit a detailed outline of your research proposal, specifying its significance and originality.

International entry requirements

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, our usual requirement is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

The School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy attracts funding for studentships that ensure researchers of the highest standard can pursue their research with us. We offer a limited number of fully funded research opportunities.

Our Research Culture

Birkbeck is at the geographical centre of London’s research library complex, a short distance from the British Library, the University of London Library, the Warburg Institute, the Institute of Historical Research and the Wellcome Institute. All our research students are supported by close individual supervision, occurring once a month, supplemented by research seminars in which all doctoral students of the Department are invited to participate.

Our Department currently offers two doctoral seminars, one run by Professor Lynne Segal (PhD Research Seminar) and one by Dr Margarita Palacios (Critical Theory Doctoral Seminar).

How to apply

Once you have identified a supervisor, you may wish to email them directly to see if they would be interested in your project, or if you cannot see a particular staff member who might be appropriate for this then please email the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr Margarita Palacios, who will be able to advise you further.

Even at the initial point of contact with our Department, it would be helpful if you could provide at least a 200-word summary of your proposed research project so that we can make an informed judgment about whether the project is something we could take on. Potential supervisors may also be happy to have an informal meeting with you to discuss your project before you submit a formal application.

Guidance for writing your research proposal

You should aim to say something in your research proposal about the subject, method and rationale - the what, the how and the why - of your proposed research. Specifying the 'what' of your research will involve outlining its subject and scope. Here, you should aim to characterise not just the material on which you wish to work, but also the questions that you propose to ask of it. Here would be the place to mention specific theoretical interests, methodologies and the resources you hope to utilise.

You should consider the 'how' of your research by saying something about how you will go about answering the questions you have posed yourself, and the approach you will adopt. Will your research be primarily empirical, critical and theoretical?

Saying something about the 'why' of your project will involve a preliminary review of work that you know in your proposed field and estimating how your work will extend, qualify or otherwise contribute to that work. It is helpful to append an indicative bibliography to the proposal.

After we receive your application, and if we think we can offer supervision to your research project, you will be invited to an interview.

Most applicants aim to begin their study in October, the beginning of the academic year. However, we receive applications throughout the year and you can also aim to start your studies in January.

Application deadlines and interviews

You must submit a detailed outline of your research proposal, specifying its significance and originality.

You can apply at any time during the year. Entry for the programme is October of each year.

If you wish to apply for funding, you will need to apply by certain deadlines. Consult the websites of relevant bodies for details.

Finding a supervisor

A critical factor when applying for postgraduate study in psychosocial studies is the correlation between the applicant’s intellectual and research interests and those of one or more potential supervisors within the Department.

Ben Gidley, BA, MA, PhD: urban ethnography, lived experience of diversity, comparative urbanism, diasporic belonding; antisemitism, particularly in relation to other forms of racialisation; Anglo-Jewish history and sociology, Jewish/non-Jewish relations; urban social movements; fascism and anti-fascism; South and East London.

Viviane Green, BEd, MA: problems and possibilities of integrating accounts of emotional development; clinical issues linked to the transmission of intergenerational trauma; a multi-perspective approach to understanding the growth of the capacity for empathy and its links to pathology.

Elizabeth Hoult, BA, PGCE, MA, PhD: prison education; resilient adult learning; resilience in disadvantaged groups; use of literary texts and techniques in sociology research; application of the philosophy of Hélène Cixous to education and sociology; the practice and place of autobiographical writing in academic research.

Professor Lynne Segal, BA, PhD: gender and queer studies, including feminist scholarship, masculinity and its discontents; the perils of desire, love, power, ageing and sexual intimacies; political identifications and cultural belongings, including notions of radical happiness and utopian thought.

Bruna Seu, MA, PhD: psychosocial inquiry into moral apathy in response to human rights abuses; psychoanalytic and social psychological contributions to the understanding of oppression, race, discrimination, identity and helping behaviour; social constructions of femininity and gender; discourse analysis and social constructionism.